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Friday, July 04, 2014

SATMAR LEADER BLAMES PARENTS OF MURDERED STUDENTS FOR THEIR DEATHS, LEADING TO OUTRAGE

Vos Iz Neias reported that Aaron Teitelbaum, the son of Joel Teitelbaum, the founder of the awful Haredi Satmar sect, blamed the parents - not the jihadists - for what happened to the yeshiva students. What follows is disgusting:

Kiryas Joel, NY - Just one day after the burial of the three murdered teenage boys, the parents of three boys became the subject of criticism from an unexpected source: the Satmar Rebbe.

The Satmar Rebbe’s words came tonight with no prior warning at the yeshiva in Kiryas Joel, with Rabbi Aron Teitelbaum blaming the parents of the slain teens for their deaths, saying that the boys died because they lived in the Israeli settlements, places that are inhabited by “predatory animals.”

So "settlers" are predators, but not Islamofascists who commit wanton, violent destruction? That man knows no shame. His speech continues:

“But with all the pain and devastation that is part of this terrible incident, we have to examine the circumstances from a wider perspective and with wisdom with eyes that are open to true daas Torah.

During the funerals, the parents eulogized their sons, but I think it would have been preferable if they had done teshuva, if they had said viduy with tears, in the nusach that is used on Yom Kippur, to repent for their decision to live and learn Torah in a place of barbaric murderers.

Who gave them a heter to live in a place like that, where they were living among known murderers? Is there no place in Israel to live and to learn other than in a place of tremendous danger?

Who gave them permission for themselves and for their children to live and to learn Torah in the midst of the lion’s den? To put their lives at risk, and the lives of their families at risk? It is all because of the yetzer hara [bad spirit] and the desire for Jews to inhabit the entire State of Israel. It is Zionism for the mehadrin min hamehadrin.”

Placing the blame for the deaths of the three teens squarely on the shoulders of their parents the Rebbe continued, “it is incumbent upon us to say that these parents are guilty. They caused the deaths of their sons and they must do teshuva for their actions.”

He implies the boys weren't observant - presumably saying they're not true Torah Jews because they weren't Haredi by his standards, and then proceeds to rub salt into the parents' injuries by blaming them - NOT the jihadists who committed the barbarism. This is utterly abominable, and has rightfully drawn condemnations from many other Jewish sources:

Satmar is known for its anti-Zionist ideology and refusal to recognize the legitimacy of the State of Israel.

According to Samuel Heilman, a professor of sociology at Queens College, there are probably 100,000 followers of the Satmar hassidic tradition today.

Teitelbaum’s remarks sparked much criticism.

The 18 days between the June 12 kidnapping and the discovery of the teens’ bodies on Monday was perceived as a time of increased unity between Jews in Israel, with ultra-Orthodox, secular and national-religious groups getting behind the social media campaign #bringbackourboys.

Eulogizing Eyal Yifrah in his hometown of Elad on Tuesday, Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef said that all of Israel was united in mourning and that in their deaths, the three yeshiva students “command us to continue in the unity and love of Israel that they bequeathed us.”

Jewish groups from across the political and religious spectrum united in condemning Teitelbaum on Thursday, with much of the grief over the death of the teens being transformed into rage directed at the Satmar sect.

“Whatever one’s political views, the Satmar Rebbe’s words blaming the murder of the kidnapped youth on their parents for living where they do is reprehensible,” World Zionist Organization vice chairman Dr. David Breakstone said.

“None of the responsibility for this heinous act of terrorism should be shifted from the shoulders of the its bestial perpetrators.

Would he also blame the death of the dozens who were killed during the intifada in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv on their decision, or that of their parents, to fulfill the Zionist dream? Or the death of the schoolchildren in Toulouse [murdered by an Islamist in 2012] for not having fulfilled the commandment to dwell in the Land of Israel? This is not the moment to debate the wisdom of Israel’s settlement policy, but rather to denounce in every possible forum the use of violence as a means of resolving conflict,” Breakstone said.

Such statements are “beyond the pale” and indicate that Satmar “has placed itself outside of Klal Yisrael,” said Rabbi Andrew Sacks, the director of the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly in Israel, using a Hebrew phrase referring to the Jewish collective body. “Our tradition teaches us that why such tragedy befalls one person and not another may only be known to God. How very audacious and smug of Rabbi Teitelbaum to appropriate this power to himself.

This is a time for words of comfort and not words of blame.”

Several prominent European ultra-Orthodox Rabbis also censured Teitelbaum.

“I did not think that my heart could break anymore after the discovery of the bodies of our three boys. But after hearing the words of this great rabbi, my heart is now even more broken,” Polish Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich said.

“In general, even if you believe that ideologically he’s right, which I definitely do not, it’s tasteless and it’s even worse [to say] that during the shiva [mourning period] when people have an open wound,” Ukrainian Chief Rabbi Yaakov Dov Bleich said.

Would Teitelbaum have blamed the Jews killed during the Holocaust “when the same anti-Zionists said don’t go to Israel, and therefore they stayed in Europe and were killed?” he asked.

The grand rabbi’s “ill-advised” comments “caused additional pain to the mourners of the three young martyrs, who are already suffering so greatly, simply for fulfilling the mitzva of settling the Land of Israel,” said Robert Levi, chairman of the board of the National Council of Young Israel, a modern-Orthodox national synagogue network in the US.

David Ha’ivri, a former spokesman for the settlement movement, said that Teitelbaum “should not be considered a rabbi” and called on his followers to bar him from any leadership positions and prevent him from speaking publicly.

Both Uri Regev, a reform rabbi who heads the Hiddush religious equality NGO in Jerusalem, and Dr. Efraim Zuroff, a Nazi-hunter and director of the Jerusalem office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, echoed Ha’ivri’s comments.

“If you despise us so much, why don’t you just get out of our lives?” Regev asked, while Zuroff said that if anyone must repent, it is the Satmar movement.

“The ‘rebbe’ should resign and do the entire Jewish world a great kindness,” Zuroff said.

Such words bring disgrace to god, ultra-Orthodox Rabbi and MK Dov Lipman said, adding that Satmar can “choose the path of hatred and bringing disgrace to God while the rest of the Jewish people choose unity, love and bringing sanctity and glory to God’s name.”

“There is nothing new in the position of Satmar that the State of Israel poses a danger to the spiritual well-being and to the security of the Jewish people.

What deserves attention is the fact that the Satmar Rebbe implies that living within the boundaries of the Green Line is safe. This subtle change might signal that one day they will recognize the Jewish state as well, but it might take them another 60 years,” Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, head of the Conference of European Rabbis, quipped.

It's not safe to just live within the green line, and the terrorist attacks over the years have proven this. Also, when Teitelbaum attacks Zionism, he's attacking the right to live in Tel Aviv as much as anywhere else in Israel. Unfortunately, if the following says anything:

The Satmar community is proud of the grand rabbi and his statements, Yosef Leib Yaakov, an Israeli representative of the sect, told The Jerusalem Post.

While critics have condemned the rabbi for the content and timing of his remarks, Yaakov countered that it was important to say such things now, while the issue of the teens’ deaths and security issues related to the territories are in the public consciousness.

That spokesman is disgusting too. He doesn't recognize that what Teitelbaum said was obscene and desecrates the memory of the victims while demonizing their families as monsters. Something Teitelbaum happens to be himself. Not all Satmar members may condone him, but then, that's why they should prove it by clearing out of that cesspool called Kiryas Joel once and for all, and getting jobs and better education for themselves.